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Author Topic: International Rice News:  (Read 7930 times)
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Mustang Sally Farm
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« Reply #45 on: January 09, 2011, 11:01:02 AM »

Philippines, Norway vaults saving rice diversity
By Cecil Morella (AFP) – Oct 23, 2010

LOS BANOS, Philippines — In a greenhouse near the Philippine capital, botanists grow strange grasses that bear tiny seeds which are promptly flown to a doomsday vault under Norway's Arctic permafrost.

The Norway deliveries are just the newest facet of a decades-old effort by more than 100 countries to save the world's many varieties of rice which might otherwise be lost.

A fire-proof, quake-proof, typhoon-proof gene bank set up by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines in 1962 now holds 115,000 varieties of one of the world's most important grains.

"We've got genes stored which could potentially help us increase the yields of rice, improve pest tolerance and disease resistance, and help us address the effects of climate change," IRRI geneticist Fiona Hay said.

The rice varieties are grown at IRRI's sprawling complex at the university town of Los Banos, two hours' drive south of Manila, so that they can be provided -- free of charge -- to farmers or governments around the world.

Yet Hay said that rice varieties were constantly being lost forever, despite the preservation efforts of IRRI, a non-profit organisation funded by governments, multilateral banks and philanthropists.

Such losses are under a global spotlight this week as delegates from more than 190 countries meet at a UN summit in Nagoya, Japan, to map out a strategy to stop the world's rapid loss of biodiversity in all plants and animals.

A rice variety can easily vanish due to pests, disease, drought or other natural disasters like a cyclone, or if for some reason farmers simply stop planting it, Hay said.

Not just urbanisation, but even farming can push wild rice varieties into extinction.

And while some countries run their own gene banks, they are not always successful in preserving seeds. In the tropics, high humidity causes rice seeds to spoil after several years, Hay said.

At the IRRI gene bank in the Philippines, seeds are stored in dry and cool conditions and can remain usable for up to 40 years.

The institute keeps its base collection in tiny, sealed, bar-coded aluminium cans in a room kept at a temperature well below freezing.

They include a Malaysian variety that was collected soon after the gene bank opened in 1962, some reed-like Latin American ones that grow taller than a man, and Indian varieties that look more like crawling weeds.

Duplicates in small foil sachets of about 400 seeds each are stored in a separate vault kept at two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) and low humidity for passing on to those who need them for farming or research.

Given the importance of the collection, extra insurance is always desirable -- hence the rice gene bank being duplicated in Svalbard, Norway, Hay told AFP on a tour last week of the Philippine facility.

Since the Svalbard seed vault opened in February 2008, IRRI has reproduced 70,000 of its own grains and sent them in tiny freeze-dried aluminium cans to northern Norway, in a series of flights that take four days.

One final delivery of about 40,000 varieties is due to be flown out from Manila airport this week to complete the project.

The seeds include those no longer grown by farmers, plus 4,000-odd weeds with genes harnessed by scientists to make the rice plant more aromatic and more resistant to pests and disease, and tolerant of drought and saltwater.

Once completed, the Norway facility will act as a further backup to a US Department of Agriculture vault in Colorado that already holds duplicates of IRRI's seeds.

IRRI has in particular helped Cambodia's farmers to recover from the ravages of war. The Khmer Rouge regime killed millions of people -- many through starvation -- and forced farmers to grow only certain rice varieties in the 1970s.

Flora de Guzman, senior research manager of the gene bank, said she had once processed a request by Cambodia to send back seeds for about 500 of their native rice varieties.

"They lost the materials during the war. We had the collection here, so between 1981 and 1989 we repatriated the varieties that they lost," she said.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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« Reply #46 on: December 30, 2011, 11:04:17 AM »


Chinese Technology To Increase Rice Yields
29 December 2011



MOZAMBIQUE - Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali has challenged the country's young people, as well as its businesses, to increase food production, by banking on the introduction of new agricultural technologies to increase yields.

This would be possible, he said, through the use of knowledge and techniques learnt through the cooperation between Mozambique and China.
 
According to a report in the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique", Mr Ali was speaking on Monday, during a working visit to the Lower Limpopo irrigation scheme in the southern province of Gaza. Here, in the Ponela block, a rice production project is underway as part of the twinning between Gaza and the Chinese province of Hubei.
 
A memorandum signed between the two provinces in mid-2007 stipulates that in an initial phase the Chinese investors should ensure rice production in an area of 300 hectares.
 
Tests began two years ago, and since then rice production at Ponela has been raised to ten tonnes per hectare. Previously, under the traditional Mozambican system, yields were between two and three tonnes per hectare. The Chinese production techniques have been transferred to about 20 Mozambican farmers to date.
 
"What we want is that Mozambicans, particularly young people and the business sector, should embrace this project enthusiastically, obtaining the technologies and the machinery to increase production levels", said Mr Ali.
 
Gaza has educational institutions that specialise in agriculture, and Mr Ali suggested that students from these colleges should go the Lower Limpopo irrigation scheme for apprenticeships where they would assimilate Chinese rice production techniques.
 
Agricultural engineers and other specialists should also visit Ponela, he said, so that they could understand the Chinese technologies and spread them to other provinces.
 
The Ponela block covers about 11,000 hectares or arable land. 7,000 hectares are worked by commercial farmers, and the other 4,000 hectares are in the hands of around 8,000 peasant producers.
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« Reply #47 on: March 16, 2012, 03:25:57 AM »


Samar Farmers Adapt Rice Ratooning
15 March 2012



PHILIPPINES - Samarnons may adapt rice ratooning to augment their dwindling harvest.

In Pinabacdao town where 756 hectares are devoted to rice farming, the rice ratooning technique will be done along with some other towns in Samar making the total area to be ratooned, 300 hectares, said Nelson Badolid, Municipal Agriculturist.

The idea was conceived in a meeting of agriculturists with Anita Taran, provincial agriculturist.

Ratooning, according to Badolid, is leaving rice stubbles in the field after harvest, applying a bag of fertilizer per hectare, and saturating the field with water. After some time, new grains will sprout and can be harvested after 45 days.

According to the agriculture journal, this is an inexpensive way to produce a second harvest of rice.

Mr Badolid recommended this as it is less affected by the climate and pests because the growing period is short.

“It enables farmers from having a second cropping because when the time comes, the field will then be cleared,” Mr Badolid offered.

Meanwhile, while Samarnons are rejoicing that it is harvest time, the agriculturists are grumbling because of the low productivity. Mr Badolid said that only 60 per cent of the rice grains are filled up because of the inclement weather.

He added that whereas before, farmers were able to harvest some 100-120 bags of rice per hectare, farmers now only get 40 bags due to the change in climate.

“Rains just pour unexpectedly, during the flowering stage, so that the grains end up half filled,” said Mr Badolid.

Pinabacdao Mayor Mario Quijano said he challenged the agriculture department to come up with a technology to cope with the worsening effects of climate change.
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